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Wednesday, March 15, 2017

The BJP’s resounding victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections is the result of a mix of carefully crafted campaign and electoral management strategy spread over a year, involving organisational restructuring, youth mobilisation, farmers outreach and effective use of state-of-the-art technology through traditional and new media.

Organisational Strengthening

Membership: Around 1.80 crore people were given primary BJP membership in Uttar Pradesh in the last one year. Of these, the party’s database contains name, address and booths of 1.13 lakh members.

Active members: In the last one year, 67,605 active members have been registered in Uttar Pradesh, which is twice the number of the previous years.

Training: Two state-level and six sub-state level “Training of the trainers” workshops were organised. Subsequently, the trainers trained 75,428 workers at the mandal level and 13,676 workers at the district level.

Reconstituting Mandals: Mandals were set up for 100-125 booths

Booth planning: Booth committees were created in all 1,47,401 booths in the state. Each committee had 10-21 members. A total of 13.50 lakh booth-level workers were appointed. BJP President Amit Shah addressed six regional conventions of all the booth committees.

Lifetime support: This state collected Rs 16,91,72,315 as individual contribution to the party

CAMPAIGN COMMUNICATION

The election campaign in Uttar Pradesh was anchored around three main points: Uttar Pradesh’s dismal administration, the Modi government’s accomplishments and the BJP’s People Welfare Pledge (Sankalp Patra).

Print and electronic media advertisements: Advertisements were issued in all newspapers, publications and television channels that publish or operate in the state. Party President Amit Shah himself sat down with the ad agencies on creatives to buttress the broader political message.

Video vans: A video van was operated in each of the 403 Assembly constituencies. As many as 58,809 small events were organised through these vans in which 46,08,674 people participated. In addition, 11 virtual reality vans were run in the cities.

Kamal Melas: Over a six-month period, 34 Kamal Melas were organised . Each of these melas established contact with an estimated 60,000 people, implying that BJP’s message reached an estimated 20.4 lakh people through these melas.

Roadside (nukkad) meetings: Fifteen street play teams panned out to all the Assembly constituencies carrying the BJP’s message through 8,574 plays.

Social media: The BJP’s in-house social media team crafted a comprehensive social media strategy. IT centres were set up in all the district headquarters. Specially designed workshops trained 5,031 workers on various IT and social media tools.

WhatsApp: The party used WhatsApp effectively, reaching out to 15 lakh people through 10,344 Whatsapp groups.

#BJP4UP TWITTER HANDLE: BJP4UP had following of 40,000, which evolved into a major communication vehicle during the campaign. The party also had four Facebook pages through which it reached out to 40 lakh people.

OUTREACH

Parivartan yatras: Parivartan Yatras, which began from four different corners of the state, travelled through all the 75 districts of the state, 403 Assembly constituencies, covering a total distance of 8,138 km. As many 233 small and large public meetings and 2,537 welcome meetings took place during the course of these Yatras, in which more than 50 lakh people took part. The Yatras culminated in a big public meeting in Lucknow addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Youth conferences: As many as 88 youth conferences were organised in all the districts of the state, in which 4,65,493 youth participated.

Women's conferences: As many as 77 women’s conferences were organised in all the districts of the state, in which 2,50,660 women took part.

Backward castes/class conferences: As many as 200 conferences for people of the backward communities were organised in all the districts of the state, in which 8,39,100 representatives from these communities participated.

Swabhiman conferences: Eighteen conferences were organised across the state for people belonging the scheduled castes in all the districts of the state, in which 54,300 representatives from these communities participated.

Traders' conferences: To reach out to the trading community, traders’ conferences were organised in 14 mandals, in which 11,850 representatives participated.

Youth town hall: BJP President Amit Shah established contact directly with 74,200 youth through 156 video conferences, understanding their problems, responding to their questions and communicating BJP’s development-oriented agenda.

Maha farmers' outreach: “Maha Kisan Abhiyans” were organised in two stages in Uttar Pradesh. In the first stage, direct contact was established with 2,30,669 farmers through 3,564 meetings.

In the second stage, "Maati Tilak Pratigya Rallies” were organised in all the 75 districts. As many as 1.34 lakh farmers brought symbolic land from their respective fields that BJP leaders smeared on their foreheads as Tilak pledging to fulfil their aspirations and demands.